


About What?

by Morrigan2345



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Angst and Humor, Friendship, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 17:39:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3905047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morrigan2345/pseuds/Morrigan2345
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q knew he couldn’t hide it forever, not with spies and gossipy coworkers crowding together watching his every move.</p>
            </blockquote>





	About What?

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Skyfall like two nights ago and i needed to get this out of my system because goddamn.
> 
> Also Q and Eve have known each other since Highschool? Who would have thought?
> 
> Also Also there is like no Time Travel because i'm a shit lord and i just used it as a small plot point...hahh
> 
> Also Also Also i got the title from the movie About Time which you should go watch because i said so and i got most of the time travel stuff (not the angst) from there as well 
> 
> (Also Also Also Also i'm Canadian so that would explain my lack of language quirks (?))

Q knew he couldn’t hide it forever, not with spies and gossipy coworkers crowding together watching his every move.  Not with this lack of knowledge on how to hide this particular thing, mostly because he never had to deal with eyes constantly on him.  Not when he had to earn trust, and trust for double-oh agents specifically meant that secrets were a luxury.    

He knew this, so it wasn’t so much of a when it would eventually come up, but who would find out and bring it up.

So it was no surprise to Q when Moneypenny opened the door to his office and locked it behind her the day after she had taken him out drinking.  She sat down on one of the chairs that she had picked out for him and slipped her phone out before clicking her tongue.  This was not an unusual scene, he told himself, Eve stopped by from time to time, chatting aimlessly and on occasion bringing lunch and gossiping about new threats.

What was unusual though was that she had not said anything for the past five minutes other than to huff loudly in his general direction.  He sighed and looked up slowly from his laptop and found her looking at him with her hands under her chin.

“Do you know what kind of drunk you are?” she asked suddenly and he could feel his eyebrow twitch

“Usually I can’t remember anything so I can’t say I do.” He said, a cautious feeling was growing inside him every second she kept on staring at him like that, unblinking.

“You’re a truthful drunk, one of a kind actually.” She said

“Oh well, I guess that answers that-“

“You’re also an impulsive one,” she continues over him like he never said anything, “not that rare, one that wants to prove things.  Most of the time it ends with a sprained ankle, maybe a bruise or two, but that wasn’t the case last night was it?”

“Eve, I really don’t remember anything of what happened last night.” And she rolls her eyes, he can feel some tension flow out of him, and moves to cross her arms over her chest.

“I know you don’t, but I’m pretty sure going back in time to when we first met would be something you’d want me to remind you of.”

Q was accustom to all and every type of silence, ranging from awkward to comfortable, the whole spectrum.  So the intense silence that engulfed the office was entirely known to him, but it was also entirely unwelcome.

“I-“

“I know what I saw Q, don’t lie to me, I can hold my alcohol better than you, so I remember the ugly tie you wore and the ratty old pair of shoes I had on the day we met vividly.  And, if this works the way I think it does, I’m pretty sure we have our drunken initials carved into both of our old lockers.  Even though, from what I remember about our first meeting, we weren’t so friendly enough with each other to do that.  I’m pretty sure I insulted you on more than one occasion actually, also pretty sure you through a yogurt cup at me for it.  You remember that?”

“Yeah, I remember that.” He said trying to hold back a smile, she wasn’t bringing it up for nostalgia sake, “Eve look, this whole thing is a rather complicated story in which I try and tell you that my family has a long history of time travelers and that I have the same famous family quirk that lets me frolic through time?  I mean it makes no sense, how am I supposed to explain this to you if I don’t even know how it works?” he ends with a small tired exhale and runs his fingers through his hair restlessly.

Another small bout of silence that leaves him clenching he jaw until Eve speaks again, humor colouring her words, “You know, I thought this conversation would go differently.”

“Why’s that?” he asks, curious, but not enough to raise his eyes from the table.

“I felt a little hurt, you know, best friend keeping this massive secret and I don’t even have a bigger one other than that one time I walked in on one of the double-oh’s talking to their gun.”

He snaps his head up abruptly, “Bond talks to his guns?” there’s an edge of gleeful hysteria to his voice, “Why did you not tell me this, it’s important that I know these things.” And she looks at him unimpressed

“I didn’t say it was Bond-“

“-But it was Bond-“

“and we’re off topic.” She glares and he grins a little before gesturing for her to continue, “So yes, I felt hurt, thought I was gonna come in here and start yelling, maybe throw your pens on the floor.” The both look at his pen holder on his desk before she rubs her temples and sighs, “I- Q, I knew you _before_ you were Q ok, and I knew back than your family situation wasn’t always enjoyable, but I always thought- you know, maybe you weren’t so lonely when I was there, in the same way I wasn’t lonely when you were there.” She smiles then, sad and painfully, it makes him want to hug her and never let go, “That’s why I love you, cause we helped each other and we understood each other, but now you’re telling me you had this huge thing bottled up inside you for years that’s obviously bothering you?  I just- I feel so _guilty_ Q, where was I?  I’m your goddamn friend, where was I when you-“

He cuts her off quickly before she can continue, “You were there when I was getting beat up by the kids in our highschool, you were there when my dad ignored me and when my mother told me that I wouldn’t do anything with my life.” He drags a hand down his face roughly, “We really shouldn’t be having this conversation at work.”

“Too late.” She says with a small grimace, but the tightness around her eyes softens

“You were there when I needed you Eve, and you still are.”

She stares at him and rolls her eyes again, but there’s a small smile tugging at her lips, “You’re a sap.” She states and he huffs

“You started it.” He says and watches Eve pick up her purse and take a small paper bag out of it, “Is that the coconut thing from across the building?” he asks eagerly

“Yup, but first,” she puts her purse down and rests the pastry on her lap, “we have to talk.”

He looks up to her in slight distress, “Will I get the pastry if I answer them?”

“Q.”

“What? It’s an honest question.”

“ _Q-_ “

“Alright alright,” he flaps his arm though the air, “go for it.”

“How many people know?”

“Just you- wait no, my family obviously, but outside of that, just you.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“No, well not usually, I can’t say for certain that I won’t get critically hurt if I go change up past things, or that I won’t completely ruin the future by meddling with the past.”  He grimaces

“What” she asks sharply

“I got stabbed once, now that were not lying to each other anymore.” The silence on the other side of the table makes Q wrings his hands.

“You got-“ she doesn’t finish her sentence and he bites his lip

“It wasn’t my fault, I was just walking down the street and I saw this, uh, fight and I thought I might be of use but this fight turned out to be a mugging and, word to the wise, don’t sneak up on muggers with small concealable knives.”

“How did you-“

“Survive?  Well I went back to an earlier point in the day and I made sure that a, uh, friend of mine helped out with the altercation.”

“How did you get Bond to help you out in the middle of the night” she asked which elected an objection from Q

“I never said anything about Bond-

“-But it was Bond-“

“and your supposed to be asking me questions.” He said impatiently

She smirked, “You ever use your ability in highschool?”

Q inhaled quickly, “Once or twice” he said looking at his discarded laptop with longing

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Like when?”

“You know,” he mumbled, “that one time with the thing.”

“What? I don’t know what you mean?” she asked innocently but there was a gleam in her eyes which made him sigh, he’d lost this one.

“That one time when we thought it was a good idea to test ourselves beyond the comforts of our solid friendship.” And Eve let out a triumphant laugh and smacked her hand on the desk, rattling the pens.

“I knew it!” She said and he pursed his lips together

“How could you possibly have known that?”

“Well, not the specifics, but we were 15 Q, and I knew something was up when you kissed like it wasn’t your first time.” She said with a laugh and he snorted

“God, I think I might’ve redone the whole thing 4 or 5 times trying to get it right.  Didn’t help that it felt like I was kissing my sister, but it was a memorable day in the history of our relationship and I didn’t want it to be remembered by excessive amounts of spit and awkward instrumental music in the background.” He chuckled when Eve put her head in her hands

“Oh God, the visual alone-“ they seemed to shudder at the same time

“Ok, I think I deserve a break right about now.” And he held out his hand expectantly

“You answer three questions and you want a break, you’re very lazy you know that.” She said seriously, but handed him the pastry nonetheless

“Well I have to compensate for your lack of laziness.” He said as he bit down into the crunchy filo dough.

When he finished the pastry he crumpled up the paper bag and threw it in the garbage, only to miss and have it rebound to the base of Eve’s chair, she rolled her eyes and bent down to pick up the paper ball.  She made eye contact with Q and threw the paper ball directly into the bin while keeping eye contact with him. 

Q _does not_ stick his tongue out at her.

And she _does not_ wink back.

“Well,” Eve says, standing up, “this was a nice emotional time we’ve shared together, let’s not do it again.” She says and reaches over the table to kiss Q’s cheek.

“That would be most agreeable.” He says as he rubs lipstick residue off his face  

“Bye Q.” She says and he’s about to say the goodbye as well when Eve opens the door and reveals most of Q-branch pressed up along the side of the door.

“Eve” he says, staring at each pair of eyes that seem glued to his person

“Yes dear?”

“How many people have you told?”

“Just Tanner.” she says warily

“Just-“ he sighs and thumps his head on the back of his seat, “He’s told everyone hasn’t he?”

This time one of his answers, albeit cautiously, “Yes Sir.”

“Wonderful.”

“Sir.”

“Could I have a moment please.”

It’s not a question.

“Yes sir.”

The door’s soft click is loud in his ears.

*

Over the following days a number of things happen.

1)      He receives two emails, one from Tanner and the other from M.  Tanner’s is an apology while M’s is a direct question, _does it affect your work?_   He doesn’t bother with Tanner’s (over the following weeks a small array of different cookies will appear on his desk and eventually Q will answer back with a smiley face and a heart) but sends M _Of course not sir, it’s under control_.  He gets a reply 2 minutes later, _then that’s that_ (They both know Q is more useful in Q-branch then in a lab somewhere).

2)      James Bond destroys any form of tracking device Q has put on him and has gone off the map.

3)      He’s come close to firing 18 different employees, some of which aren’t even under his immediate jurisdiction

4)      The leader of a huge human trafficking ring goes missing.

5)      James Bond comes back with blood on his collar 

         

*

Life is not necessarily easier after the big reveal, but Q feels as though there’s something extra adding to his life, there’s a bit more colour now that he doesn’t have to keeping lying to the people he loves.

So it’s a surprises when 007 comes kicking into his office holding a bagel.

“When were you going to tell me?” he asks and angrily tosses the bread on Q’s laptop, who picks it up quickly and places it next to it instead.

“That I’m not a fan of bagels?” Q actually enjoys bagels and Bond knows he likes bagels, since he gets them for Q every time he comes back from a mission, but he likes seeing Bonds left eye squint at him, contemplating if murdering the Quartermaster is worth the jail time.

He stalks forward and looms over Q, who cranes his neck up and raises an eyebrow, “What?  No.  I’m talking about the thing.” And Q wishes he had installed cameras in his office because Bond lifts his hand and swishes it around in the air.  If Q wasn’t so concerned with 007 wellbeing he would have laughed until he either fell off his chair or until Bond slapped him.

“I have no- Literarily no idea what this,” he wiggles his arm same as Bond did, “means.”

The other man rolls his eyes and slaps Q’s hand out of the air, “Shut up,” he says, annoyed, and sits down gracefully into the chair, “and I’m talking about this time travel business.” He looks like he’s about the wave his hands again but glares at Q instead.  Q, on the other hand looks at him with open confusion.

“I thought you knew?”  Honestly Q thought half of England knew, but most likely refrained from mentioning it in front of the PM for everyone's sake.

Bond huffs, “Why does everyone assume that I’d know?”

Q contemplates the answer.

Bond frowns, same question going through his mind.

There’s a crash from outside and hushed whispers follow but Q-

Q’s come up with an answer, and going by the look on Bonds face he has to.

“So…” Q starts out dumbly

“Your Staff thinks we’re dating.” Bond’s right eye is twitching, Q doesn’t know what this means, he’s never seen this one twitch (or maybe he has his traitorous brain suggests).

“Seems so.”

“So does Eve, probably Tanner.”

“Double-oh’s” Q says with feeling  

A minute of silence where everything is quiet on both sides of his office while he and Bond just stare at each other.

“M” they say together, both shuddering

Bond shakes his head and something changes in his eyes, something softer and more sincere, “Would you have told me?  If no one else knew?  Would you-“ the _have trusted me_ goes unspoken but Q hears it anyway, Bond can’t get away with stoicism when he’s around Q.

“I,” Q answers slowly, not knowing if this is what Bond wants to hear, but it’s the truth and he owes the man some some of it, “would have considered it, maybe even gone through with it.  But, James, I didn’t even tell _Eve_ about it until I was plastered.  It’s a family thing, and don’t look at me like that, it wasn’t a particularly happy family thing.  There were a lot of thinly veiled threats to my immediate family from obscure relatives, and even more conditioning of not to tell anyone.  Did you know what I did when I got home after I found out most of MI6 knew?”

Bond shakes his head, jaw clenched.

“I sat on my bed with a phone in my hands for hours, James, _hours._   Just coming up with endless possibilities, maybe my lovely sister had suddenly gotten into a fatal car accident and I need to come home right now not to miss the funeral.  Maybe- Maybe Eve had been taken and I would have to be called down to the morgue to identify the body because I mean something to her and she means the world to me.  And, god forbid, I get a call from M one day telling me that an unexpected bomb had gone off in some hotel in Slovakia where the invincible James Bond had been staying, but they’re rolling out his burning corpse anyway.  Do you see where I’m going with this?” Q asks, a little desperately, knowing most of what he just said was relayed to his staff.  He needs to stop having these conversations at work, he’s going to get fired.

Bonds face is devoid of emotion but his fingers are clenching and unclenching around the arm rests.  Q gets up slowly and walks around the table, he gets in front of Bond, who’s staring at a wall, and kneels down.  He takes both of Bond’s hands and holds them in his own.

“Bond.” He says gently and he hears the man exhale

“What happened to James?”

Q smiles up at him slightly, “James is for when we have emotions.”

“You’re crazy.” Bond says and frees his hands from Q’s grasp, he would have felt a loss but those same hands curl around the base of his skull lightly a second later.

“You love it.”

“Yeah.”

There’s a hushed cheer from outside the door and Q hears a stern voice telling them to get back to work.  He thinks it might be his new replacement but the only thing Q’s thinking about at the moment is that Bond’s lips are millimetres from his own.

“I do” and Q closes the gap.   

**Author's Note:**

> This was fun,
> 
> yeah
> 
> i haven't slept for 84 years 
> 
> ye a h
> 
> My tumblr is a-small-jewel-shard.tumblr.com go check it out for updates and stuff
> 
> (did u notice the hand thing? that was a pride and prejudice thing because i'm weak)


End file.
